Well, I just checked my emails from the number of standing eBay searches that I watch on a daily basis, and was delighted to see that the "reactors" filter had been triggered today! Certainly a rare and popular line here at the Preserve, you don't see many of these little guys come up. Better still, the notification indicated that it had a buy-it-now of $19.95 - great price given their newly established market value! Well, one of the other Reactors fans in this wide world beat me to it (just as well) and has a great deal on this boxed complete piece. Check out the auction for further proof that this line is establishing itself as one of the hot commodities of the late '80s. Posted by charlie on November 30th 2009, 09:38 PMLeave CommentShare

The G.I. Joe - Rise of Cobra line motors right along with yet another raft of store exclusives, this time four diorama sets at Walmart! Our investigations today found all four sets in stock, alive and well, and I admit they look pretty great. For a price point of $15 you seem to get a lot of bang for your buck, with two figures, some sort of large and small accessories, and the great diorama packaging to boot! Sets in this series are:

Outpost Defender

Surveillance Port

Heetseek Missile System

Laser Artillery Weapon

I picked up the Outpost Defender set with Roadblock and Tripwire - both figures are well posed in the set, with the great ammo feed into Roadblock's 'Ol Painless. The set itself is a highly detailed sandbag foxhole, complete with corrugated steel roof, a munitions box full of rifles, and even what seems to be a robot bomb diffuser! What an amazing set for $15! If you are able to track these down in your local store, this one is definitely worth your time, and be sure to check out the others as well. Posted by charlie on November 29th 2009, 05:39 PMLeave CommentShare

At a Rite Aid in central New Hampshire yesterday I couldn't help but walk down their toy aisle. Of course, I expected to see the usual knock-off western cap guns and duplo scale yellow bulldozers, but was shocked to see not only a Transformers 25th Anniversary Scout Class 3-pack, but one that I'd never seen or heard of before! Well, tfarchive.com came to the rescue and infomed me that the "Warriors From Three Worlds" set is a Walgreens exclusive! Well, it seems also a Rite Aid exclusive - guess one owns the other or something - who knows! The set contains Scout Class Ransack, Scattershot and Repnugus, all from the Cybertron line, with no repaints.

I definitely fell down on the job with not knowing about this set, but it was a great surprise to stumble upon it! Of course, at the $29.95 shelf price, I opted to let Rite Aid hold on to it, but here is an eBay auction to get an idea about the set. And yes, I see there is only one auction on eBay now and it is selling for a premium, so this probably would have been a good set for the collection, but I can do only so much! Posted by charlie on November 28th 2009, 08:49 PMLeave CommentShare

Sponsor News - bigbadtoystore.com
Big Bad Toy Store has sent out their latest news about their Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales, as well as new arrivals and hot deals. Click the link to read about the figures you've got to have, filtered to include Preserve-centric product lines. Read MorePosted by charlie on November 27th 2009, 09:05 PMLeave CommentShare

As the time ticks by, I wanted to wish all of the readers of the Preserve a very happy Thanksgiving! In only a few more hours the tradition of Black Friday will again beseige our retail outlets, and while I hope to avoid any and all such events I guess I do wish the stores luck so that ol' economy can recover or something. In the meantime, we'll just keep our focus on things that were made 10-30 years ago, as we should!

Time yet again for our Transformers Q&A session with Hasbro! Any rumors floating around you'd like to directly put to the design team? Got questions about any upcoming RotF figures or sets? Send them our way and we'll pick the top three and pass them directly to the higher-ups! Remember, we have to submit them by 3pm this coming Monday, November 30th, so try to give us at least a little time to get them selected and forwarded - have everything to us by noon. Posted by charlie on November 25th 2009, 02:27 PMLeave CommentShare

Alert, Preserve readers! A long-overdue Target run has uncovered a complete endcap of the new Target exclusive items from the Transformers, G.I. Joe and Star Wars lines! Hasbro again reigns supreme with the Target exclusives, and this year they are looking good. In particular I am totally in love with the Past and Present Rockslide ATAV with Snow Job - a fantastic G.I. Joe set! I'm so impressed by the art and the classic figure and vehicle pieces that they went to the trouble to recreate. Also be on the lookout for a Transformers: Burning Fallen, a new Transformers Legends 5-pack, and the Transformers 25th Anniversary Leo Prime - all exclusives, and all great! Posted by charlie on November 23rd 2009, 10:30 PMLeave CommentShare

One of our favorite old school game collections is the Intellivision set, originally donated by friend of the Preserve, Conor. While we have not focused enough on building out that set or featuring it fully on the Preserve, at least it is in the archives awaiting the attention it deserves. Well, in the meantime, here's a nice eBay watch for an Intellivision set and 29 mostly boxed games. For just $30 starting bid, you can get a good start on a classic collection yourself! Posted by charlie on November 22nd 2009, 10:11 PMLeave CommentShare

We've been on yet another Mattel kick this week, so let's switch things up with another item from the great Playmobil Ghost Pirates line! Here is the Sting Ray with Bareback Rider set, #4801 which numerically kicks off the Ghost Pirate series. You have to love the big toothy jaw that flips down on the bottom of the Ray, for extra added scare factor. Click the image for a few additional shots of this excellent set!

Here is the final addition in our wave 7 set of DC Universe Classics figures - Captain Cold! From the master page for this line, you can see that we didn't manage to track down either the Booster Gold or Big Barda variant figures, but the way these lines go I was happy enough to find at least one of each figure at retail at all. Click the image below to learn more about Len Snart, his criminal career, and the fortuitous development of his cold-gun!

Continuing our coverage of the Batman - The Brave and the Bold line, we delve once more into the small-scale Action League figures with another excellent figure and vehicle set. Join Batman, with respirator, and his to-scale excellent Batsub as they patrol for baddies, under the sea! Click the image for a few more pics of this great addition to the line.

In celebration of the latest Mattycollector.com figure releases (Scareglow and re-issue He-Man) I wanted to feature Webstor from the Masters of the Universe Classics collection today. The figure from September, he has a great bio and played a part in many of the classic cartoons. This was a figure that Mattel tried to produce more of, in an effort to keep him from selling out so fast on line. Well, he lasted for 6 days which is a lot better than many of the figures. Maybe due to his second-stringer status, and maybe due to Mattel's upping of production - either way he's a great figure, and hopefully everyone who wanted one had a chance to place an order. Click the image for way too many pictures, and the bio for this classic figure!

The Hasbro G.I. Joe team has returned their answers to our latest questions!

G.I. Joe Q&A #5 (2009)

Preserve: Can we expect any more Helix figures?
Hasbro: I'm sure Helix will make an appearance in the line in 2010.

Preserve: Has wave 3 of the Alpha class vehicles officially been put on hold?
Hasbro: No, they will be released in early 2010.

Preserve: Will we see the 12" figure format continue in the Pursuit of Cobra line, starting in January 2010?
Hasbro: We have no plans at present to include 12" figures in the 2010 Pursuit of Cobra line.

Thanks to the team at Hasbro for their great answers! That's good news about wave 3 of the Alpha class vehicles, and we look forward to adding them to the collection.

Today Mattel released Scareglow...after Halloween, and the re-issue of He-Man at long last! Sadly He-Man is already sold out, so hopefully everyone snagged one who wanted him. Scareglow is still going strong, though, so be sure to swing over and pick one up!

One of the most memorable and cult-favorite scenes from the Indiana Jones films is the fight against the 'German Mechanic' on the Flying Wing aircraft that was set to smuggle the Ark away to Nazi hands. Indy took his licks against a massive pugilist, and as usual came out on top - with the help of the airplane prop! Click the image below for more shots of the packaging of the excellent Lego set that captures and immortalizes this scene - after all these years how great to have a German Mechanic lego figure!

Hasbro - Toys for TotsPress Release: Hasbro and Dennis Quaid team up to bring the G.I. Joe brand to the Toys for Tots program. Click the 'read more' link to learn about this program, and how your Rise of Cobra purchases this season will help families in need. Read MorePosted by charlie on November 14th 2009, 09:59 PMLeave CommentShare

Ok, I said I was in a G.I. Joe mood so I've got to go for the hat trick, at the risk of boring anyone who is not a fan of this new G.I. Joe - Rise of Cobra line. At least bear in mind that while it may be 'movie product' and you may have your own opinions on the movie, much of the material is totally classically inspired and has no bearing on the summer film. Take, for example, the Air-Viper Commando with Cobra C.L.A.W.! Maybe one was in the background of some elaborate CG sequence, but as with all of these Target exclusive packs I think it's not hard to get a little vintage nostalgia from them. Click the image below for more pics of this set from wave 1 of those exclusives!

I'm sort of in a G.I. Joe mood this week it seems, so let's take a look at another figure from the surprisingly awesome G.I. Joe - Rise of Cobra line. The Cobra Eel is often a scarce and highly prized figure to find on the shelves, mostly thanks to the troop building collectors and the often excellent accessories that come packaged along side. While not coming with the simply absurd number of pieces as Pit Trooper or Arctic Viper, you do get several guns of various scales, and some flippers. Hey, he's still a cool figure - click the image for our usual extra pics and the short bio!

Target has had a number of fantastic exclusive sets in the new G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra line. From the second wave of their reasonably priced figure/vehicle sets, let's take a quick look at the Air Viper with Rocket Pack. You really get a lot for your money with these sets, seeing as basic figures hover around the $7.50 price point, though recent sales at Target and WalMart have brought some reasonability back to things. Click the image for a few more shots of this set.

Here is a nice early reminder that Scareglow will be on sale at Mattycollector.com next monday! Remember that you can also get the re-issue of He-Man in case you missed him way back at the start of this line. Save your pennies for December then, as it marks another 2-figure MotUC month as well as two new Ghostbusters figures! Egad!

Something I meant to post a few days back was the first promo shot of the new A-Team cast for the upcoming feature film. As usual, toplessrobot.com provided me with the great info - you've got to check it out and marvel at how Liam Neeson is channeling the spirit of George Peppard....I mean, I have no way to understand that image, but it gives me great hope! Posted by charlie on November 9th 2009, 10:48 PMLeave CommentShare

Hailing from the wave 6 "Kalibak" series, today let's take a look at Killer Moth from the DC Universe Classics collection. Drury Walker, a washed up career criminal with an ineffective funny suit, made a deal with the devil and learned to play the guitar like he was ringing a bell, or some such. Click the image below for more shots, and his full bio and stats!

Sponsor News - bigbadtoystore.com
Big Bad Toy Store has sent out their latest news about new arrivals and hot deals. Click the link to read about the figures you've got to have, filtered to include Preserve-centric product lines. Read MorePosted by charlie on November 7th 2009, 05:19 PMLeave CommentShare

After our long and difficult search for Masterpiece Starscream several years ago, it's interesting to note that Masterpiece Skywarp has finally been released to US retail in the form of a WalMart exclusive. People on Transformers sites here and there are reporting finding this exclusive figure with the much loved 25th Anniversary styling, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled. If he's anything like Starscream, it'll be a tough and inconsistent hunt! Posted by charlie on November 4th 2009, 09:58 AMLeave CommentShare

Taking a look at Captain Power items currently available on eBay, I discovered the seldom-seen Water Rifle accessory! Check it out for a starting bid of $50, and see if you can add it to your collection! While you're there, be sure to check out the Japanese Major Hawk Masterson and Tank Ellis figures! Posted by charlie on November 2nd 2009, 10:16 PMLeave CommentShare